People tend to go through Singapore rather than to it, which means the airport is often all they see. You could call Singapore Asia’s Dubai, but it might be more accurate to call Dubai the Singapore of the Middle East. Changi International Airport has been offering free city tours for layover passengers since 1987 and now, with the installation of a massive, programmable piece of public art, they’ve taken the next step to make sure that, even if you don’t stay, you’ll remember your trip through the Little Red Dot. Called Kinetic Rain, this sculpture by Berlin’s Art+Com in Terminal 1 is choreographed so that it’s always in motion and metamorphosis. Better than staring at CNN until your flight leaves.

New Canadians get a big break on rail travel

VIA Rail has just announced an extraordinary and quintessentially Canadian offer for newly minted Canadian citizens. If they sign up with Institute for Canadian Citizenship (icc-icc.ca), they qualify for 50 per cent off any trip VIA offers, including the cross-country Canadian. According to Steve Del Bosco, VIA’s chief marketing and sales guy, the offer is wide open, and the discount applies to the lowest available fare (not including the last-minute 75 per cent off fares). New Canadians can use their discount on one trip, anytime during the first year of their citizenship.

Belgian resorts sue the weatherman

When a Flemish newspaper printed its long-term weather forecast for only 5 days of temperatures above 25 and a mostly rainy early August, the resorts were flooded with cancellations, according to the head of tourism for the town on Knokke-Heist on Belgium’s 50km coastline along the English Channel. “These long-term predictions are unscientific and have been proven to have only 50 per cent reliability,” the official told UK paper the Telegraph. “"We all know Belgium is not California but we do get good weather.” They’re planning to sue for losses totaling several million dollars.

Two religious academics declare war on hotel porn

A Christian from Princeton and a Muslim from Zaytuna College have joined forces to try to convince the CEOs of five US hotel chains to stop offering porn as pay-per-view options in their rooms. In their letter, they say “…we appeal to you not on the basis of truths revealed in our scriptures but on the basis of a commitment that should be shared by all people of reason and goodwill: a commitment to human dignity and the common good."

Towel-takers may be unwitting archivists

The Waldorf Astoria in New York says it’s declaring an amnesty on stolen hotel items. But if you read between the lines, what you’ll find they’re actually hoping you’ve stolen something that might help with an exhibition of their old stuff they’re planning covering the years 1931-1960. It seems they didn’t bother keeping the stuff themselves. Think about that next time you tuck some silverware into your pocket: You’re not a thief, you’re a curator.

Cruise lines announce $52,000 and $30,000 cruises

On a recent Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska, I learned from my fellow cruisers that there are three levels of cruise line: the regular, the luxury and the premium. Seabourn, which is offering a round-the-world cruise for $52,000 (base fare) and Crystal, which is offering a 74-day Miami-to-Miami round-the-worlder of its own for a comparatively cost-effective $29,015, would be in the premium category, I’m guessing. The Crystal’s already operating off a waiting list, so if you’ve got the ducats, you may want to get on the phone with Seabourn before they’re sold out, too.

And furthermore…

Groupe Germain have opened the 13-storey Alt hotel at Pearson airport for those who want a discount boutique experience before their early-morning fight… Tofino’s Wickaninnish Inn has been rated the top Canadian resort by Travel and Leisure magazine… Tourists tend to use up too much of the freshwater in developing nations, says a report by British charity Tourism Concern… Tractors called into to shore up a riverbank have inadvertently crushed thousands of baby sea turtles in still in their nests in Trinidad… Be careful of the Kiwis: two French tourists hitch-hiking in New Zealand were abducted, beaten and robbed last week.

App of the week: Where do balloons go? ($5.99; iOS)

It’s really just for iPads, but it’s from Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis, so how could one resist? It promises to keep your little ones happily occupied in the back of the car, or beside those scowling childless passengers on the plane, with its activity-based version of Curtis’s children’s book of the same name.

Bert Archer writes weekly about travel news to use and amuse. You can reach him with tips, complaints and questions at bertstravel@gmail.com, and follow him on Twitter @BertArcher.

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